


Warmth

by starchunks



Category: Kill la Kill
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:38:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3292343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starchunks/pseuds/starchunks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Mako asks for after their original 'date' sends them both spiraling into something Ryuko had never expected from her friend. Takes place in the canonverse and picks up a couple weeks after the last events of the show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Goodnight

“Satsuki looks good with short hair, huh?”

“Mmm.” Ryuko glanced over to see her friend happily munching on one of three chocolate ice cream bars she currently had in her hands. Satsuki had left them at the corner after she’d joined their 'date', since Ryuko’s bike was at Mako’s house. She’d had no idea her sister would visit so soon, but was nonetheless glad that they'd run into her.

“Hey Ryuko?” Mako’s query shook Ryuko from her thoughts, and she realized she’d been staring at her feet.

“Yeah?”

“D’you think I could come stop by and see how your apartment’s doing soon?” her light voice trilled. “I’m sure you haven’t even begun unpacking all those boxes.” She winked.

“Tch, of course I’ve _started_ ,” she retorted. After everyone had left Honnouji, Satsuki had offered to lease an apartment for Ryuko so she didn’t have to crowd the Mankanshoku house any more. She’d protested until her sister admitted she’d already paid for it, as well as filled it with regrettably packaged furniture.

Mako grinned knowingly as they rounded the corner of the fence and stepped into the yard. _Shit, she knows I haven’t even touched them._ Ryuko couldn’t help but smile herself.

They were already at the house. Ryuko hadn’t even realized they’d been so close. As they stepped up the path to the porch, Mako stuffed her remaining ice cream bars into her pockets. She turned around, having gone up the two steps, leaving Ryuko a good three inches shorter.

“I had a lot of fun, Ryuko. It was really good to see Lady Satsuki again, too.” She giggled. “Kinda just like old times.”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “Except nobody tried to attack us.” She was pleased to see Mako’s smile deepen, but anxious to get back to her apartment so that she could sleep. The day had actually exhausted her. “Well, goodnight.” Ryuko waved a hand and turned to head back up the stone trail.

“W-wait-“ She cut herself off. Ryuko spun around to see a hesitant expression upon her friend’s face. Her hand was clasped to her chest, as if she’d reached out with it when she spoke.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I…” She bit her lip and looked at her feet, holding back again.

“Mako? Is something wrong?” She stepped closer, worry tugging at her stomach.

“It’s just… tonight was awesome and everything, but…” Mako took a short breath before continuing. “I kind of wanted to go on a _real_ date.”

Ryuko quirked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” How did she think it wasn’t real? _I mean, I know my sister showed up and everything, but…_

“I mean-“ She gave a small grunt of frustration and began to rock gently on her heels as she spoke. “I wanted to dress up nice, and walk around until we found a nice place to sit, or to eat, and kind of just… be around each other, you know? Just the two of us.”

Ryuko felt stunned. Was… _Is she saying what I think she’s saying?_ Her mouth hanging open, she tried to speak, but couldn’t think of anything to say.

Seeing the look on Ryuko’s face, Mako tried to backtrack. “I mean, unless you don’t want to, I mean, if it’s not something you would do, it’s totally fine, tonight was fine, we can just-“

“I’d love to.”

Mako paused, not having heard over her own talking. “What?”

“I-I’d love to. Where would you want to go?” Words didn’t feel right in her mouth. She’d no idea that Mako had been serious about the whole ‘date’ thing. She hadn't even realized that she might have felt something more than friendship for her until she’d already blasted through the stratosphere, weeks ago. Mako had been one of the only things keeping her fighting up there, she realized. _Along with Senk-_

“How about we go to the pier?” Mako said excitedly. “I love being this close to the ocean, it'd be cool to go exploring around there with you!”

Ryuko gave a sheepish grin, bringing an arm behind her head to mess with her hair. “Yeah, sure, that’d be great.”

Mako gave a brilliant smile. “Can you pick me up at like five? It’s a bit far to walk…”

“You sure you don’t mind riding the scooter?” It was more of a motorcycle, another gift from Satsuki, but Ryuko couldn’t help but feel it was a little less than conventional.

Her friend waved a hand in front of her. “Pshh, I think I can handle it.” She gave Ryuko a clumsy smile she’d never seen before. It made her weak in the knees.

Ryuko gave another crooked grin in return. “Alright then. See you at five.” _Now walk away before you say something stupid to fuck it up._ She waved again, turned, and left, perhaps a little too quickly. She threw her leg over her bike, starting it in the process. Trying not to display her scarlet face, she headed down the street for her apartment building.

Still trying to wrap her head around what she’d just agreed to, it took Ryuko about ten times to get the passcode on the door right. She stepped into a dim kitchen that opened up into a living room and balcony. The floor was strewn with cardboard boxes and bubble-wrapped furniture.

 _Shit, that’s a lot of boxes…_ Ryuko couldn’t even begin to imagine how many packing peanuts she’d have to deal with in the morning.

She set her keys down on the counter before meandering around the packages to the door that led to the next and only other room. The would-be bedroom was about the same size as the living room, and had a connected bathroom.

A singular empty box sat next to a lone mattress on the floor, covered with a sheet, a couple blankets, and a pillow. The rest of her clothes littered the floor by the window on the opposite wall, next to her backpack.

She climbed into her makeshift bed after undressing, facing the wall. For the first time in days, she dreamed of something other than her old sailor uniform.


	2. Blossom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryuko and Mako's REAL date together.

Ryuko stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. _Dress up nice…_ The words echoed inside her skull. She didn’t have many clothes, and those she did have would never be considered ‘nice’. Still, she’d done her best to dress for the occasion by throwing on a white collared shirt and a black pleated skirt.

_Only one pair of shoes…_ Shit. Why hadn’t she asked Satsuki to take her shopping instead? _Oh right. Because you didn’t give a shit about what you wore until now._ Except for him…  
She stopped the thought in its tracks. Now was not the time to make herself sad.

In a vain effort to make herself slightly more presentable, she undid the top two buttons of her shirt, tugging the collar to expose a bit of her chest. She also tried shaping her hair in different directions, but it always ended up rearranging itself into a tangled mess. She sighed, giving up, reaching for her jacket and keys before heading out the door.

An unfamiliar knot twisted in her stomach as she wound through the streets towards Mako’s house. She found herself tapping her heel against the pavement as she waited for each stoplight to turn, each moment dragging out to what seemed like ten.

Her fingers tightened around the handlebars as she turned the corner to see a small figure in a short, light blue dress perched at the end of the yard. As she slowed her approach and caught the girl’s eye, she realized that Mako was actually wearing…

_Makeup?_ It was selfish, but Ryuko had always assumed that her friend couldn’t afford cosmetics. She kicked herself internally. _Idiot, she was probably saving it for something important, and now she’s wasting it on your sorry ass._

She pulled up to the sidewalk and Mako greeted her with a brilliant smile that made Ryuko forget how to breathe. _Say something. Tell her she looks beautiful._

“You look pretty... nice,” she mumbled gruffly.

“Hello to you, too,” her friend trilled. Mako wasted no time in climbing behind Ryuko and wrapping her arms snug around her waist. The sudden warmth made Ryuko dizzy.

“Well then.” She glanced to the girl behind her. “Ready to take off?”

Mako eyed her with a look of unease, but smiled and rolled her eyes anyway. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Ryuko revved the gas and spun the bike around, their sudden acceleration causing Mako to squeeze tighter around her midsection.

“Not so fast, not so fast Ryuko!” she yelped, burying her face between Ryuko’s shoulder blades. Laughter rippled through Ryuko’s chest as the wind whipped through her hair.

The occasional stops for traffic came as a relief to Mako, but Ryuko found herself enjoying the way the girl held on extra tight whenever they sped. Plus, at every stoplight, she’d sigh and rest her chin on Ryuko’s shoulder, unknowing of how it liquefied the other girl’s stomach.

Parking ended up being hard to come by, especially for a Sunday night, but Mako was quick to spot someone leaving a space that wasn’t too far from the pier’s sign. Once she dismounted, Ryuko took a moment to take in her surroundings. The calls of the seagulls above, the smell of the ocean, the distant murmur coming from the boardwalk.

Ryuko jumped as she felt a warm hand squeeze into her own and lead her into the small crowd scattered along the length of the pier. She had to jog to keep up with Mako’s pace, unable to shake the ridiculous smile plastered to her face as the girl gaped at all the food stands.

“Oh my god, that looks so yummy…” Ryuko swore she could see drool starting to pour from the corner of her friend’s mouth.

“You want to stop here?”

“No no, not yet… holy shit, look at all that _food_.”

“What about here?”

Mako clicked her tongue. “Not yet, silly. Haven’t found the right place.”

Ryuko laughed, bewildered, as Mako continued to drag her down the boarded sidewalk. “Alright then, where?”

Her friend paused, gazing about in a full circle. She suddenly gasped and nearly pulled Ryuko off her feet as she made a beeline for what looked like a typical seaside café.

Ryuko’s cheeks started to burn. This was way too nice a venue for her, especially with the way she was dressed. As they approached, she saw that the café was complete with fresh flowers atop wrought iron tables and chairs arranged outside under a colorful overhang. It looked almost empty, with only one or two other couples dotting the tables inside.

Mako dragged her all the way to a table on the end that held a perfect view of the ocean over the pier railing. As she sat down, she noticed a waitress already coming over to lay glasses of water and menus on their table.

“Thanks!” Mako chirped, turning her smile to Ryuko as their server went back inside. “Isn’t this perfect?”

Ryuko grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I’d say it’s pretty perfect…” Her face twisted into a grimace. “But not for someone like me…”

Mako looked worried. “What do you mean?”

“I-I just mean, with the way I look, it-it’s probably too nice a place, you know?” she stuttered quickly, realizing what she’d said could have been taken the wrong way.

“I just took you to a place that looked as cute as you are.”

The compliment caught Ryuko off guard, and she fought the urge to sink into her seat as her entire face flushed. “R-really? I didn’t think I looked all that great…”

“ _What_? You’re kidding. You look amazing,” she said, reaching over to lay her hand on Ryuko’s. Their fingers were only touching for a second before Mako returned them to her menu, but Ryuko felt the sensation linger.

An intense warmth bubbled down to her stomach to match the increasing heat in her cheeks. She smiled to herself as she browsed her own menu, wondering what the hell she ever did to get Mako to like her this much.

Unable to help herself, she looked up again to see Mako’s face scrunched in concentration above the menu she’d set on the table. Her chestnut hair was pinned behind her ear with two golden bobby pins and glinted red in the light of the now setting sun. 

Ryuko’s heart skipped a beat when she discovered that the soft light had revealed something on Mako’s face she hadn’t noticed until now: a light dusting of glitter that complimented an equally pale spatter of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

Catching herself staring, Ryuko shot her eyes back down to her menu, but found it difficult to keep them there. _Sheesh, she’s pretty_ … How the hell hadn’t she noticed before?

_Nice. First date and you’re just now noticing what she looks like._ She sighed at herself, looking up again when Mako grinned in triumph, pointing to three different entrees.

Ryuko laughed inwardly. _At least she’s not afraid to eat_. When the waitress visited again, she picked something off the menu at random, not focused on the food.

After they’d eaten, Ryuko again found herself wheeled around by her hand as they found ‘dessert’ at about six different food stands. As the sun continued to set, hanging strings of lights flickered on one by one down the boardwalk, taking the place of the invisible stars above them.

Realizing how late it was getting, they made their way back to the bike, Mako still working on an ice cream cone. Ryuko made a conscious effort to drive with care on the way home, aware how long her friend’s forehead had been resting on her back.

Mako’s head lifted as Ryuko pulled into her neighborhood and stopped in front of her house. Stepping down to the sidewalk, Mako rubbed her bleary eyes and gave a yawn so wide it made the corners of Ryuko’s mouth twitch.

“You’d better get inside, you look tired.”

Mako grinned, still massaging an eye with the heel of her hand. “I’m sure that’s exactly what every girl wants to hear after a date.”

Ryuko blanched, not realizing what she’d said could have been taken the wrong way. “N-no, I didn’t mean it like that, you looked super pretty tonight – beautiful, even – I just noticed how tired you were getting and- “

She gulped as Mako seized her flailing hands and fixed her with a soft look. “I’m only kidding …” For the first time that night, Ryuko caught a tinge of red on Mako’s cheeks. “I had an amazing time.”

Ryuko gave a crooked smile. “I did, too.”

Mako sighed, still smiling. “I hate to go. I really did love riding on your bike, y’know.”

“We could always… do this again. I mean, only if you wanted,” Ryuko offered tentatively, bringing an arm behind her head.

“Do you mean that?” Mako’s eyes lit up as she squeezed the other of Ryuko's hands, still in her grasp.

Ryuko gulped, but smiled at her friend’s enthusiasm. “Yeah definitely.”

She froze as Mako enveloped her in a crushing embrace, burying her face into the crook of Ryuko’s neck. She could have sworn she caught a whiff of something floral as she wrapped her arms around Mako's shoulders.

“I’ll talk to you soon, then,” Mako said with yet another flash of sparkling teeth, ending the hug all too soon and turning to jog up the steps to her house.

As Ryuko was about to climb back on her motorbike, she heard a distant “Oh, wait…” and turned just in time for Mako to pull her down by the collar and press their lips together.

The only thing she could think of was how soft Mako was. Her silky lips, the tentative hands pulling Ryuko close. But before she could move her own hands, awkwardly hovering in the air, the feeling had disappeared and Mako was dashing through her door.

It took Ryuko a few moments to register what had actually happened, but once she did, she couldn’t stop thinking of it. The feeling of Mako’s lips occupied her thoughts the entire ride home, making it even harder to enter the correct passcode to her flat than the night before.

Moving as if through a haze, every nerve ending in overdrive, she curled up on top of her blankets, not even bothering to undress. Peering at the wall though dreary eyes, still filled with images of her night, it took a good half hour before she felt herself drifting off to sleep.

Her Mako-filled musings were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone, still in her jacket pocket after being neglected all night. Expecting a message from the current occupant of her thoughts, she fiddled inside her jacket until she found the source of the noise. But as the screen lit up, a completely different name flashed across the top. She opened the messages.

12:01 [saw you at the pier]  
12:01 [looked like a cute date]

12:03 [The hell, Jakuzure? How did you get this number?]

12:03 [satsuki probs put it in for u]

12:03 [Of course. Why the hell were you spying on me anyways?]

12:04 [im a creep]

12:04 [No seriously]

12:05 [relax. im in the city for a couple weeks on company business]

12:05 [Business? You still text like a sixth grader]

12:06 [ha ha.]  
12:10 [look, i actually have to tell you something]

12:11 [Spit it out]

12:12 [jeez, chill. im tryin to help w your relationship]  
12:13 […what?]

12:15 [you and the cute brunette should really keep it on the down-low]

12:15 [How do you even know we’re dating?]

12:16 [ahahah, I know a lesbian when I see one]

12:16 [Funny. We’re not.]

12:16 [yet.]  
12:18 [seriously though. some ppl around here aren’t rly good w that stuff. youd best keep it indoors]

12:18 [Thanks, but... why are you even trying to help]

12:19 [cuz i know how it feels]

12:21 [Ok... whatever that means. Can I go to bed now?]

12:21 [sure. u have fun w that]

Ryuko rolled her eyes, tossing the phone into a pile of her clothes before pulling the blankets around herself. Jakuzure’s warning rung in her head. She knows how it feels? Was she pulling Ryuko’s leg, or were her intentions sincere? She had a valid reason for distrusting her, after all.

Either way, it wasn’t long before her exhaustion caught up with her, and the conversation moved to the back of her mind. She finally let sleep take her with a hand touching her lips, a poor mimic of the sensation she suddenly found herself craving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was way sooner than expected after the first but whatever, heh. Third chapter soon to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the short introduction. I promise things will get rolling soon.


End file.
